As both my kids are still very small we go for books with:

- simple concepts
- repetitive text
- bold pictures with bold colours

Examples are the Jeanette Rowe 'Whose nose?' 'Whose Belly?' etc books and the 'That's Not My . . .' books - they also incorporate textures in their concepts. 'Where is the Green Sheep?' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' are also BIG favourites in our house.

My kids love books about animals and familiar characters. Books that have counting are also great. We are also getting up to the stage where DD can find certain things on a page such as a hidden mouse on every page of the book.

We also love books that reflect something we are trying to learn about - 'There's a House Inside my Mummy' is a new favourite because I am having a baby so it is a good way to talk about what is happening to grow our baby in a way that DD can understand without being too overwhelming for her.

We avoid books that are pop-ups or with more than a few words on every page. I also have to be able to tolerate it to a certain degree - I can read the same book over and over and over again every day so if I can't stand it because it is too complex or badly written, I hide it till I think I can stand it again

If you want to write a kids' book I would suggest going to the local library to the kids' section and reading a whole variety of children's books to see what you think works and what doesn't. If you can, talk to kids in the age group of the books you want to write and see what they like and why they like it.

Good luck